For the past few years I have been writing a end-of-year review summarizing major events or changes in my life that occurred for that year as well as reviewing the resolutions I had set at the beginning of the year. I have found the process of writing these reviews extremely helpful for my own personal advancement. Having such reviews to look back at the years also helps me see where I could have improved and what things I considered important. If you have a blog, journal, or even a diary, I strongly encourage you to do something similar.
This past year seems to have brought the greatest number of changes to my life, as seems to be the case for every year that passes (a good thing, I think). Changes on the material level have been equally as great as those on the personal level.
Last year, after realizing that I could not afford to keep my three multi-family investment properties, I listed all of them for sale. But due to the rapidly declining market, all but one was foreclosed on this year. The bank did not even have the courtesy of calling me on the first foreclosure and the property that was sold earlier this month sold at a huge loss. I tried working with the banks on all three properties, but they would hear nothing of it.
The global financial crisis only worsened things, but it was way back in 2007 that I saw where things were headed. That was when I told myself I had to leave all emotion out of the financial decisions and simply do what makes the most sense. For that reason, I decided to file for bankruptcy this year. I'm young and spending the next 5 - 10 years trying to keep up with three mortgages that totaled more than 4x the (drastically reduced) value of the properties made no sense at all. Hey, some of the most successful people have filed for bankruptcy and bounced back. Like I said, when it comes to finances, leave all emotion out of it and just do what makes the most sense. The weight of responsibility, stress, and worry that has been taken off my back is incredible. I never thought I would feel so much freedom and relief as I do now.
Late in September, I decided to move out of my 1000+ sq ft, two-bedroom Arlington apartment and move back close to home (but not at home) to a tiny 150 sq ft room to save money on rent and expenses. The decision was difficult because for the past 10 years I've subconsciously used the distance I was living from home as measurement of my independence (it's silly, I know). The big reason to move was to save money, but it was also because I realized having all that extra space made it that much more difficult to own less stuff ("Reduce what I own", a 2008 new years resolution I took very seriously). Since my new place wouldn't have anywhere to put all the stuff (and because I hate crowded rooms), I began letting go of stuff.
It was the end of a 3-year relationship late this year that made me open my eyes and really take a look at my life and the so many things that I have neglected. (I intentionally avoid talking about the more emotional aspects of my life on this blog, but this event profoundly affected the way I look at life, love, and relationships.) Communication holds the keys to every relationship, whether in business, family, or love. Although my sociable limitations have always been a crutch, I've managed to "get by" with the bare minimum, telling myself, and others, that not being social is "just who I am". Well that's bullshit. Our limitations, and the things we're not good at, should be the very things we spend the most time improving! Shrugging off change because it's difficult is a sure way to death. We need to Evolve or Die.
I've started being friendlier to people and I try to smile more often (I'm well known to have that "always-so-serious" look). I make an effort to communicate, even with people I don't know. I've also begun doing more online socializing with sites like Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter and I make a conscious effort to read and comment on others' blogs. In the few short months that I've begun making such conscious efforts, amazing things have started happening.
After attending the HOPE conference earlier this year, I realized how much I really love the lower-level world of technology (microcontrollers, robotics, etc.) and I decided I really want to learn to write Linux device drivers and explore the inner workings of Unix. My company paid for a class at Harvard Extension and I decided to take the C/Unix class to get myself started with C and Unix programming. I never really understood how the C language was so much closer to the machine, but now I do (and now I can really appreciate its power). I absolutely love it. Being home-schooled and self-taught my whole life, this class marked the first formal education I've ever had and, like my unique perspective of college, the environment was very new.
I never thought I would give up my Blackberry, but this year the iPhone won me over. It's an amazing device and I'm really glad I switched. Having my phone, email, and iPod, SSH client, web, and camera all in one tiny, very user-friendly device is simply incredible.
After reading Getting Things Done by David Allen, I bought a GTD application for OS X (and iPhone) called OmniFocus and I've been using it religiously to keep myself organized. Practicing the GTD method has definitely helped me stay focused and get more things done (though I'm still practicing). I've begun reading other books like the very popular How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. One of my new years resolutions for this year was to read one book every month. I haven't quite achieved that rate, but I've at least read half a dozen books cover to cover. I discovered I can read stuff online at 700 WPM with nearly 90% comprehension using spreeder.com and it has helped me get through the large number of interesting articles that I normally would have passed up for lack of time.
Here are the new years resolutions I made earlier this year, along with notes about what was, or was not, accomplished:
- Drink at least 2 liters of water per day (doesn't include other liquids)
- Drink no more than 1 cup of coffee per day
- 100 pushups, 100 situps, and 100 pullups per day, every day
- 10% Bodyfat
- Maintain a 100% vegan diet
- Reduce what I own
- At least $20k in savings and investments
- Get rid of all my rental properties
- Revamp my web hosting business and move it to corbaweb.com
- Make bbalert.net public (personal project)
- Make myfmo.com public
- Make savenotes.com public
- Read one book per month
- Become a better chess player
Not done. The first few weeks I drank a lot of water, but I think if you're not very active, drinking so much water can be very difficult. I don't drink 2 liters of water a day, but I usually manage to down at least 16 oz.
Done. To my surprise, I was able to stick with this rule throughout most of the year. A single cup of black coffee, usually a small. For the past few weeks, I've cut black coffee all together and reverted to a single shot of expresso diluted in a large cup of hot water (an Americano). I also try to drink at least 1 cup of herbal tea every day.
Not done. Yikes. Not even close. My workout routine was very irregular this year and currently my lats and arms hurt like hell from the two sets of 10 pullups I did two days ago!
Not done. As I mentioned above, this year my workout routine was very irregular (entire months passed without working out!) but there are no excuses! 2009 will be the fittest year of my life!
Done. Vegan for life!
Done. As I mentioned in the review above, I have gotten rid of all my properties, sold a lot of stuff, moved into a tiny 150 sq ft room and I'm now down to just a single storage unit of stuff and whatever is in my small room and bathroom. Paying for the storage unit ($120 a month) should give me incentive to get the stuff inside sold ASAP.
Not done. Due to the loss of my properties this year and my overall financial situation, this has not been achieved.
Done. I tried to sell all three of them, but two were foreclosed on and one was sold. As I said in the review, the weight of responsibility, stress, and worry that has been taken off my back is incredible. I never thought I would feel so much freedom and relief as I do now.
Not done. I decided to change the name from corbaweb.com to actualwebspace.com. Revamping my hosting business has been something I have been delaying for far too long. I made myself a promise that I would get it revamped before my vacation is over, and I will be spending this weekend working on it.
Not done. This was going to be a site for setting up BlackBerry email Alerts, but since I got an iPhone, my interest in finishing this vanished.
Not done. This is the fitness management site I've been wanting to create for the past few years (it was carried over from 2007).
Not done. A simple web app to save notes online (it was also carried over from 2007). I've seen lots of online sites that do something similar (Pastie, NoteSake) and they have mostly discouraged me from creating my own version.
Not done. But I've read about a book every two months on average this year, so it's definitely a huge improvement.
Not done? I haven't put any major effort into becoming a better chess player, but the past few days I played with my dad and beat him 75% of the time (vs 25% last year). I thought maybe I was getting better, but then yesterday I lost every single game to both him and my brother. I definitely need to play more often.
While going over all the posts I wrote this year, I came across Managing Trust and Expectation. While reviewing the past year is great, we must never forget the importance of this very moment.
Speaking of the vegan thing, I’ve got a recipe that I consider to be vegan, but I don’t honestly know if it is or not. Mind if I were to toss it your way for a critique of such? For what it’s worth, if it is, indeed, vegan proper, then you’ll have a freakin’ YUMMY dinner.
Definitely! Send it my way; I’d love to take a look at it. You really need to get creative when you’re vegan, so I’m always on the lookout for new vegan recipes.